Chapter 30 Chapter 6 The Miracle on the Ice

During this period, Galia continued to operate in the interstellar space under the influence of the sun's gravity.So far, no planet has ever adversely affected its motion in space.The Nelina satellite that it captured when passing through the asteroid field still revolves around it twice a month.It appears that Gallia will have little trouble during its orbital period, and everything will be smooth. But the biggest concern of the Galians is still whether they can return to Earth safely. Will there be any mistakes in Rosset's calculations?Are the new orbits taken by Galia and the revolution period taken after the collision with the earth very accurate?

Rosset was so eccentric that no one dared to ask him to re-check the calculation results. Therefore, it is self-evident that Selvadak, Iron Mashev and Prokop are worried all day long.As for the others, they are very content with the status quo and have no worries at all.Especially the Spaniards, their lives are already very poor, how can they be as rich as they are now?Negret and his companions have never had such a good time.What is Gallia's future course of action, and what does it have to do with them?Why should they bother themselves whether Galia stayed in the solar system?Therefore, they only know singing and dancing all day long. For these carefree people, what better way to express their joy than singing?

The two happiest people on Galia were, without a doubt, Pablo and Little Nina.Sometimes they chased and played in the tunnel, sometimes climbed the cliffs on the coast; sometimes went to slide a few laps on the ice by the sea, until they slid to the white sky, and sometimes went fishing in the pool at the foot of the volcano.But they didn't let up on the French lessons Servadac gave them.Their French is now quite fluent, and they can not only talk with others, but also exchange ideas with each other relatively freely. In short, today's life is so satisfactory, why would they worry about the future?At the same time, what is there to cherish about the bitter past?

One day, Pablo asked little Nina: "Nina, are your parents still alive?" "I have no parents, no siblings, just me. What about you?" "I'm alone, too. What did you live on?" "Helping sheep for others." "And I," said Pablo, "drive people's carriages day and night." "But Pablo, we're not alone now." "Yes, not alone at all." "The Governor is our father, and the Earl and Second Lieutenant are our uncles." "It's so nice of Ben-Zoff to play with us all day long." "Everyone is nice to us," Nina said. "We can't let ourselves be spoiled by how nice they are to us. We can't let them gossip about us."

"You are so sensible, Nina. I have learned a lot by your side." "The two of us should live forever. I am your sister and you are my brother. Brother." "It's gotta get better," Pablo said. The two little guys are so cute, everyone loves them from the bottom of their hearts.Both Captain Servadak and Count Ironmashv regarded them as their own children.Under these circumstances, what could Pablo have for poor Andalusia, or little Nina for the barren land of Sardinia?In their minds, the world today is exactly what they have dreamed of for as long as they can remember.

In a blink of an eye, it's July.This month, Gallia has traveled only 88 million kilometers in its orbit and is 688 million kilometers from the sun.This distance is three and a half times greater than the distance between the earth and the sun.But their speed is basically the same now.Because the average speed of the earth is 84 million kilometers per month. April 62 on the Gallian calendar.Early in the morning, Professor Rosset sent a note to Captain Servadac, telling him that he planned to calculate Gallia's mass, density and surface gravity in the cave hall today, and invited them to attend at that time.

Captain Selvadak, Earl Iron Mashov and Second Lieutenant Prokop certainly would not miss this opportunity.But they are not as interested in calculations about data as Professor Rosset.What they were concerned with was what the rocks all over Gallia were made of. Soon, Professor Rosset came to the hall on time.He was in high spirits, high spirits, but the work had not yet begun, and God knows if he could keep it that way. Readers must know what surface gravity is.On Earth, the so-called gravity is the attraction of the center of the earth to an object.On Galia, this gravitational force is greatly reduced, but to what extent it needs to be understood.

As for mass, it depends on the amount of matter contained in an object, which is expressed by the weight of the object.Density refers to the amount of matter contained in an object within a certain volume. To sum it up, the first question is: what is Galia's surface gravity? The second question is: how much matter is there in Galia planet?In other words, what is the mass, or weight, of Gallia? The third question is: the volume of Galia is already known, but how much matter is contained in this volume, that is to say, what is its density? Professor Rosset spoke first, saying: "Gentlemen, today we want to clarify the relevant data of my comet. When we have mastered its surface gravity, mass and density, it will have no secrets for us."

After a short pause, he said again: "Gentlemen, we must first find out how much a kilogram of objects on Earth weighs on the planet Galia. Since Gallia has a smaller mass and less gravitational force, everything weighs much less than on Earth . But how much lighter? That’s something we’ll have to figure out.” "Very well, Professor Rosset," said Second Officer Prokop, "but the balance we use every day cannot solve this problem. Because both ends of the balance are affected by Galia's gravitational force, it is impossible to distinguish between Different masses on Earth and on Gallia."

"Exactly," said Count Ironmashev. "On Gallia the weight we use will lose as much weight as the object it is intended to weigh." "Gentlemen," said Professor Rosset, "it would be a complete waste of time if you were addressing this to me. Permit me to continue." His demeanor is exactly like admonishing students in class.Then he asked: "Could you please bring me a spring balance and an existing one-kilogram object. This scale expresses the weight of the object to be weighed by the expansion and contraction of its spring, and is not affected by the gravity of Gallia. An object weighing one kilogram is weighed on this scale, and the result obtained is the weight of the object on the surface of Galia. Therefore, the difference between the gravitational force of the earth and the gravitational force of Galia can be seen. I repeat, you Can you get me a scale?"

After listening to his words, everyone, you look at me, and I look at you.Selvadak then turned to Ben-Zov, because he was familiar with all kinds of equipment here. "We don't have spring scales, and we don't have anything that weighs a kilogram," Ben-Zoff said. The professor stomped his foot on the ground angrily. "But I know where there are such scales," Ben-Zov continued. "where?" "On board the Hansa." "Why didn't you say it earlier? Beast." Rosset shrugged and scolded angrily. "Go borrow it and use it." Captain Servadak said. "I'm going right away," said Ben-Zoff. "Shall I go with you?" Servadac said again. "It's not so easy to borrow something from a miser like Isaac." "Let's all go," said Count Ironmashev, "and we can see how he is doing on the ship." Everyone was about to get up when the professor asked again: "Count Iron Mashov, can you find someone to beat a one-cubic decimeter stone on the cliff for me?" "Of course. The engineer on my ship can do it," said Count Ironmashev. "However, I need to get him a standard ruler." "You don't have a scale, don't you have a ruler?" the professor cried. Ben Yizoff said that there is indeed no ruler in the storage room of the cave. "But maybe on the Hansa," he added. "Then let's go!" Professor Rosset immediately stood up and walked out quickly. They turned a few times on the rocks, and then went straight down the hillside to the edge of the small bay where the Dobrina and the Hansa were moored. The seaside is freezing cold, and the temperature has dropped to -35°C.The hot air exhaled from the mouths of Selvadak and the others, who were wearing thick winter coats, formed frost on their beards and eyebrows in an instant.Not only that, everyone's face also had a thin layer of frost.Professor Rosset is no exception.He was very small in stature, almost like a little bear, which made his face even more fierce. It is eight o'clock in the morning, and the sun is rapidly approaching the zenith.As Galia is getting farther and farther away from the sun, the sun's disc has become significantly smaller, and it looks like a bright moon hanging in the middle of the big moon.The sun shone on the earth, neither brought much heat, and the light appeared very weak.The water vapor in the atmosphere has already condensed into ice and snow, which fell on the vast cliffs, making the mountain and the outside a silvery white world.From the foot of the mountain by the sea to the smoky crater, the whole land is like a white carpet.Only on the northern hillside is a stream of fire that meanders along the mountain. After reaching the big cave, it falls vertically and falls into the deep pool by the sea. About 50 meters up from the entrance of the big mountain cave, you can see a dark cave with a long tube of astronomical telescope protruding from the cave.This is Professor Rosset's bedroom and astronomical observation room.Above the cave, there is a thin stream of fire slowly flowing into the cave, which was specially attracted by Selvadac to keep Professor Rosset warm. The sky is white all over the coast, and the sea has become one with the coast.Against the backdrop of this vast snow scene, the blue sky also looks pale and miserable.The footprints of these developers can be seen everywhere on the snow.They come here every day for walking, skating and carrying ice, because fresh water can be obtained by melting the ice. The footprint stretches from the coast to the vicinity of the Hansa.This was left when Isaac walked across the snow after the last snowfall.As the temperature drops, the snow has frozen extremely hard, so these footprints are still preserved there intact. It was about a mile from the front of the hill to the cove where the Hansa and Dobrina moored. After reaching the bay, Prokop pointed to the waterlines of the Hansa and the Dobrina and told everyone that the two ships had been gradually raised and were now six or seven meters above sea level. "It's really interesting," said Captain Servadak. "This is obviously because the bay is not too deep. As the sea water under the hull freezes widely, the gradually thickening ice layer generates a strong force, which slowly lifts the two ships." Prokop said. "Then is there any limit to this ascension?" Count Ironmashev asked. "Sir, it's hard to say. The temperature has not yet dropped to the limit of space temperature," said Prokop. "I would like the temperature to keep dropping." Professor Rosset said, "otherwise, if we travel thousands of miles to a place 800 million kilometers away from the sun, and the temperature we encounter is only about the same as that at the two poles of the earth, it will not be worthwhile." gone." "It's easy for you to say, Mr. Professor." Prokop said, "But the temperature drop in space is not endless. At most, it can only drop to -60°C to -70°C." "We can bear this kind of cold weather with no wind," Servadak said. "It seems that we can safely survive the entire severe winter." Next, Second Officer Prokop spoke to Count Ironmashev about his concerns about the Dobrina.As the ice continues to thicken, it is not out of the question that the Dobrina will be lifted to extremely high altitudes.He feared that when the ice thawed in the future, what awaited the Dobrina would be the fate of all whaling ships that wintered at the Earth's poles.But what is there to do but resign to fate? At this time, everyone has arrived near the Hansa, and the hull is surrounded by ice.Isaac had dug some steps into the ice.People climb up the stairs until they reach the deck.If the ship continues to rise to more than 30 meters, what will happen?But this is Isaac's business, and others can't control it. A wisp of blue cooking smoke rose from the snow-covered ship along a copper funnel.There is no doubt that the miser who built a fire to keep warm must be very fuel-efficient.But I'm afraid it's not too cold here.The ship is covered by thick ice and snow, and ice and snow do not conduct heat, so the temperature in the cabin must be barely manageable. "Hey, miser!" cried Ben-Zoff.